Letters to the Editor

Posted
Wednesday, October 9, 2013 2:32 pm

Thanks to the community

To the Editor:

This past summer, the Rockville Centre Youth Council and the Rockville Centre Guild for the Arts joined together to sponsor Chalk Talk on the Walk, a creative way for people of Rockville Centre to get involved in public safety through the arts. For Chalk Talk, residents, including teens, kids, parents and other adults, gathered on Saturdays in front of Village Hall to hang out and “chalk.” Over the weeks, dozens of residents and other supporters chalked positive messages, including anti-drugs and alcohol, healthy living, and anti-bullying, on the sidewalks in front of Village Hall. The artists were kept well fueled by an abundance of assorted pastries and bagels supplied by Bialystok & Bloom. Our greatest thanks go out to the staff of Bialystok & Bloom, and owner Rahul Handa, for their delicious donations. It was a very fun time for all of us being able to draw and share thoughts on that week’s topic through our work. And special thanks to Coach Realty for weekly supplying balloons and other decorations for the event.We’d like to thank the village, and especially Mayor Francis X. Murray, for letting us use the front sidewalk as our place of gathering and messaging. We would like to thank the village employees, including Mary Rohrs and artist Dan O’Connor, who were always available to help with the set-ups and artistic planning. And this couldn’t have been possible without the support of the Leggz Limited dancers and owner Joan MacNaughton. We’d also like to thank the wonderful staff of the Rockville Centre Recreation Department, who donated their time and talent, as did The Art Studio, and owner Meryl Cittadino. For providing our student chalkers with backpacks promoting safe driving, we thank State Farm Insurance agent Diane McGrath.Thank you to everyone involved in this this summer’s Chalk Talk on the Walk for helping us make Rockville Centre a better and safer place for all.

There is a dangerous traffic problem at the intersection alongside our 84-apartment condo on South Park Avenue. Drivers heedlessly speed around a curve, threatening our residents (many elderly) as well as children heading to and from the Riverside School each day. Authorized by the condo board, I have, for well over a year, attempted to get the county to remedy the situation. Call after call has been made to the county’s Public Works Department (only rarely does anyone on the other end answer). On those infrequent occasions when I do get through, I am assured that something will be done. The answer seems to be repainting the largely obliterated traffic lines and installing a blinking light or some other attention-getting marker. Promises have led nowhere. The situation remains as hazardous as ever. The office of State Sen. Dean Skelos has been most supportive, but even its efforts have proven fruitless. The current county administration and its supporters claim that the people of Nassau have been well served. Nonetheless, on the fundamental measures of responsiveness, service delivery and public safety, it has surely failed the test of good government.

Sid Tanenbaum, who lived in Woodmere and owned a metal-stamping shop in Far Rockaway, where he was known more for his charitable ways than his two-handed set shot, has been honored for the past 30 years with a basketball tournament that raises scholarship money for students in the Five Towns.